First impressions of South Australian government’s “Citizens’ Jury”
Well, they will provide to the jury members meals, $500 compensation, travel assistance and accommodation if needed. This is all fair enough. If the jury members were not compensated in this way, we’d be likely to end up with a bunch of volunteered pro nuclear shills.
They apparently don’t assist with child care – probably eliminating young mothers from the jury.
The jury is asked to produce an independent guide to help every South Australian understand the recommendations raised by the Royal Commission’s report.
South Australia runs over 50% on renewable energy
South Australia runs mainly on renewable energy following coal 
plant closure, The Independent, Gabriel Samuels 12 May 16 Majority of energy comes from solar and wind but the transition has been fraught with difficulties South Australia now gets the bulk of its electricity from wind and solar power, following the closure of its last coal-fired power station.
The state, which includes the city of Adelaide, exclusively has gas generators, solar panels and wind turbines serving a population of 1.7 million.
More than 50% of the region’s electricity stems from wind and solar with the remainder coming from energy efficient combined cycle gas plants.
The final coal station still in operation in Port Augusta closed down on May 9 after operating for 31 years. It generated 520 megawatts of power from coal but failed to compete with the falling price of clean renewable energy. Its closure produced a brief faltering in wholesale energy prices across the state.
The RenewablesSA transition initiative was established by the state govenment in late 2009 with a promise of $10 billion invested in low carbon generation by 2025…….
The state plans to become Australia’s wind and solar capital and is working towards complete reliance on natural sources
The state’s leading electricity provider, SA Power Networks, yesterday announced it will undertake Australia’s largest trial of storage batteries in solar homes in a bid to defer a $3 million network upgrade.
Meanwhile, last week Portugal ran entirely on renewable energy for four consecutive days between Saturday and Wednesday, in a bid to become completely reliant on natural resources.
The Independent has contacted RenewablesSA for comment. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/south-australia-runs-entirely-renewable-energy-following-coal-plant-closure-a7037646.html
Investigative journalism reveals the dirty nuclear secret of California’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory
LA’S NUCLEAR SECRET http://data.nbcstations.com/national/KNBC/la-nuclear-secret/
You really need to go to the link above and read the original article. It makes it easy for you to follow up aspects and find details
Years of mishandling dangerous radioactive materials and chemicals has also left a toxic legacy for generations of people living near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. BY JOEL GROVER AND MATTHEW GLASSER
Tucked away in the hills above the San Fernando and Simi valleys was a 2,800-acre laboratory with a mission that was a mystery to the thousands of people who lived in its shadow. In a place called Area IV of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), there was a secret collaboration between the U.S. government and private companies to test the limits of nuclear power.
For decades, scientists and staff at SSFL experimented with new types of nuclear reactors, advanced rocket systems and futuristic weapons. While this research helped launch Americans into space and provided a better understanding of nuclear power, years of mishandling dangerous radioactive materials and chemicals has also left a toxic legacy for generations of people living near the site. The scientists are now gone, but acres and acres of radioactive and chemical contamination remains right above the neighborhoods of thousands.
The NBC4 I-Team spent a year investigating the story of the Santa Susana Field Lab. Our work involved interviews with whistleblowers, an intense review of more than 15,000 pages of government, academic and corporate documents, and interviews with dozens of community members, experts and public officials. We now know these families have been living in the shadow of one of the nation’s worst nuclear disasters in history and for the first time, NBC4 is revealing LA’s Nuclear Secret. Continue reading
University of New South Wales team sets new world record for converting sunlight to electricity
New world record set for converting sunlight to electricity http://www.gizmag.com/solar-cell-electricity-efficiency-world-record-unsw/43384/ Eric Mack May 17, 2016 An Australian team has set a new record for squeezing as much electricity as possible out of direct, unfocused sunlight via a new solar cell configuration. Engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) achieved 34.5 percent sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency, a new mark that also comes closer than ever to the theoretical limits of such a system.
UNSW’s Dr. Mark Keevers and Professor Martin Green set the record with a 28 centimeter-square (4.3 sq in), four-junction mini-module embedded in a prism. This new configuration allows the sun’s rays to be split into four bands so that a higher amount of energy can be extracted from each beam.
The same team reached an even higher level of efficiency a few years back using mirrored concentrators that were able to convert 40 percent of incoming sunlight to electricity. However, this new record is the highest level achieved without the use of concentrators.
“What’s remarkable is that this level of efficiency had not been expected for many years,” said Green, citing a German study that set a goal of 35 percent efficiency to be reached by 2050.
The team does not expect that its record-breaking cell configuration will find its way on to home or office rooftops anytime soon, as they are more costly to manufacture. The group is working to reduce the complexity to make them cheaper to produce and sees a future for them on solar towers that make use of concentrating mirrors.
Meanwhile, efficiency gains are also being made in the development of organic solar cells that are cheaper and more flexible. There’s still a long way to go though, as the most recent record for organic photovoltaics set in February was 13.2 percent efficiency. Source: University of New South Wales
NASA shows the drastic impacts of climate change
NASA: Climate Change and Global Warming
Climate change effects shown in NASA images highlight drastic impact http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/climate-change-affects-shown-in-nasa-images-highlight-drastic-impact/news-story/0d03453643648bd96ff4e4cc5af0221b [EXCELLENT PICTURES]
The images released by NASA’s climate change arm reveal just how much our world has changed — some in months, others over years.
From the whiting event in Lake Kivu in Central Africa, to a flooding Mississippi River in the US, the before and after photos reveal startling changes in some places across the world, some in the space of just a few short years.
Other dramatic pictures reveal the effects of fire and flooding.
Glaciers also come up for mention with Alaska’s Columbia Glacier a particular cause for concern. Continue reading
The political nuclear marketing battle: USA versus Russia
How Washington Is Fighting For Russia’s Old Europe Energy Market, Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/05/17/washingtons-european-energy-security-boondoggle/#4247a5f362ef Kenneth Rapoza , 17 May 16, The U.S. is going after Russian nukes in Europe. And they’re counting on just one company to do it. Oddly enough, it’s Japanese.If you thought the energy security issue the U.S. has been selling to Europe was only about American liquefied natural gas, look closer. It’s also about Russian nuclear energy behind the old Iron Curtain.
Energy security in Eastern Europe is a thermo-nuclear reactor war that mainly pits Westinghouse Electric (WEC) against Russian Rosatom. It’s a drawn-out and extremely costly energy game the U.S. is trying desperately to win. State Department chief Hillary Clinton even “lobbied” for Westinghouse in Prague in 2012.
It’s not a secret. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 